Norton Testifies on Reauthorizing D.C. Empowerment Zones Before House Ways & Means Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) testified before the House Ways and Means Committee today to urge the committee to reauthorize the unique tax incentives for business investment in the District of Columbia that expired in 2011, known as D.C. Empowerment Zones, as provided in Norton's bill (H.R. 3678, 115th Congress).

"Congress continues to recognize that the benefits of incentives for investment in economically distressed communities outweigh their costs by continually extending the national empowerment zone program," Norton said. "The tax incentives for the District of Columbia were the only tax incentives for a big city that were not extended in the last tax extenders package, even though they were initially created by Republicans, with the help of several Democrats. The wisdom of these bipartisan, modest, targeted tax incentives has been amply and visibly demonstrated in the economic resurgence in many parts of the nation's capital where they applied. Unfortunately, the D.C. tax incentives expired before the poorest neighborhoods were ready to make use of them. These incentives have come down where they can do the most good."

Last Congress, Norton worked with Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) to include the District in the federal Opportunity Zones legislation, a separate set of tax incentives for investment in low-income neighborhoods. The federal government's decision to build the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in the District's lowest-income ward, Ward 8, lays the groundwork for use of the D.C. Empowerment Zones to encourage much-needed investment. The new headquarters for the U.S. Coast Guard is now open, the first in a complex of buildings Congress has authorized for the federally owned West Campus at St. Elizabeths. The D.C. Empowerment Zones are particularly helpful in revitalizing areas where the federal government is expanding, such as in NoMa.